Derrick Ross Becomes Second Man To Rush for 100 Touchdowns in a Career
Adam Markowitz
Saturday June 29, 2013
It was only three years ago that Derrick Ross was playing for the San Angelo Stampede Express of the IFL. Now, he's the only fullback in the history of the Arena Football League to rush for at least 100 touchdowns in a career. Ross scored his 100th career rushing touchdown when he rumbled in from three yards out in the first quarter on Saturday night.
Ross came into play in Week 15 with 405 yards, and he is on pace to rush for at least 500 yards for the third time in his career. No other player has ever rushed for 500 yards in a single season even once in AFL history, though QB Adrian McPherson could conceivably reach that mark this year for the Tampa Bay Storm.
The accomplishments of Ross are completely unheard of, especially for a man that has been in the league for just three years. He already holds the league record for the most rushing yards in a career, besting both Bo Kelly and Bob McMillan. Kelly played 12 seasons to amass his 1,571 yards, while McMillen, a 2013 Hall of Fame finalist, needed 13 seasons to reach his 1,514 yards.
Ross entered this week with 28 rushing touchdowns. Only two teams, the Jacksonville Sharks (33) and McPherson's Tampa Bay Storm (38), had more rushing scores on the year than Ross had by himself. The Tarleton State product also started this week with more rushing yards by himself (405) than all but the Sharks (565) and the Storm (492).
Ross still isn't the all-time leader in rushing touchdowns, but it seems to be a foregone conclusion that one more season will take care of that. He is the first fullback to rush for at least 100 touchdowns in a career, but he still has 27 more scores to go to catch the great Barry Wagner. Wagner rushed for 127 touchdowns in his illustrious 15-year career. Wagner though, never topped more than 21 touchdowns in a season.
With his next rushing touchdown, Ross will have 30 in the 2013 campaign. That will become the sixth individual season for a player in AFL history with at least 30 rushing touchdowns. Ross is going to be the owner of three of those six, joining Dan Alexander in 2007 (41), McPherson this year (31), and Tank Cook in 2011 (30).
